Pac-Man Championship Edition DX Review

By now I’m sure most if not all of us has played some iteration of Pac-Man. Over the years we have seen 3D versions, platforming versions and apparently now we have an acid induced version. While Pac-Man might be an awesome game to some people, its still kind of boring to most people…Until now!

Gameplay: I will explain Pac-Man to people who are new to the game. You guide Pac-Man (the little yellow guy), through a maze as you gobble up pellets and super pellets. Super pellets allow you to eat ghosts (the multi-colored critters that are after you). Boring…

Now let me introduce the new and improved Pac-Man. To save me from typing a super long title over and over again, we will address Pac-Man Championship Edition DX as PMCE-DX. PMCE-DX is not your grandmas Pac-Man game, unless your grandma is awesome. While the core gameplay hasn’t changed, there are additions to this release that make this game a truly stellar title. Lets begin.

The matches in PMCE-DX are timed, so you have to try and rack up as much points as possible in the given time limit. There are multiple ways to gain points. Eating pellets, super pellets and fruits will give you points, but not the kind your looking for. The real points start to rack up when you start eating chains of ghosts. Chains of ghosts? As you start earning more and more points, more and more ghosts start to follow you. At this point you have two choices; look for the closest super pellet or let the ghosts continue following, creating a long train of ghosts just waiting to chomped on. I choose the latter. The games pace speeds up as you rack up points. In other words, the match starts out slow and quickly gains speed. Im not talking about small speed increases, Im talking about SUPER FAST GAMEPLAY in a matter of a minute or two. PMCE-DX also adds bombs to the mix. Yes, Pac-Man goes postal on these ghosts. The bombs serve one purpose in this game, to temporarily get rid of the impending wave of ghosts that are after you. Deploying a bomb sends all ghosts back into their hideout just long enough for you to take a breather and re-route yourself.

Graphics: The visuals in PMCE-DX are in one word, amazing. If Pac-Man went to a rave party, it would probably look a lot like the visual effects in this game. Animations are crisp and bright, and watching this game is a real feast for your eyes. There a few different visual layouts that you can choose from, allowing you to have custom mazes. Although most of the visual styles are very nice and shiny, there were a few that weren’t as impressive, notably, the LEGO visual style.

Sound: The sound effects and music in PMCE-DX are really up-tempo and fit really well with the gameplay. The techno soundtrack is a great addition to the the already fast paced game. As the gameplay gets faster, the music also gets faster. This is one of the few games where the music and sound effects actually feel like they truly belong in this game.

Controls: Pac-Man can be controlled using either the D-pad or the left analog stick. It doesn’t matter which one you decide to use for movement as they both provide accurate movement. The A button is used to deploy Bomberman’s…errr Pac-Man’s bombs.

Wishes: There isnt really anything to wish for in this game. Maybe the LEGO themed visuals could have been substituted for more bright colored rave themes, but this is just my opinion. The only thing that I was kind of shocked to see, or not see, was the lack of some sort of online component. The only online capability this game has is leaderboards.

TQ Bottom Line: This is definitely a game that everyone must own, regardless if you’ve never liked the series. This game is near perfect and will easily provide tons of hours of enjoyment.